BASEBALL

BASEBALL; Uproar Over Mariners Creates Bad Feeling in Japan

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN,

Published: January 25, 1992

TOKYO, Jan. 24—
Government officials and businessmen in Japan reacted with indignation and puzzlement today over reports that American baseball officials were opposed to the offer by a Japanese company to help buy the Seattle Mariners.

Hiroshi Yamauchi, president of the Nintendo Company, which has teamed up with a group of businessmen in Washington State to bid for the Mariners, held a news conference today to explain the offer. He said he might be forced to withdraw the bid if the public reaction was negative. Although the reception in Seattle was favorable, the baseball commissioner, Fay Vincent, said it was unlikely the bid would be approved.

Yamauchi said the company should not be criticized for making a takeover attempt because it was first approached by political leaders in the United States.

"This is entirely different from an acquisition of an American corporation by a Japanese corporation," said Yamauchi. 'Simply a Response'

"It is simply a response to the urgings of the Senator and Governor of Washington," Yamauchi said at a news conference in Kyoto, where his company has its headquarters. "A foundation was established, and upon request, I invested in that foundation."

If accepted and approved by baseball officials, the offer by the family that founded Nintendo would represent the first time that a potential investor outside North America had bought a controlling interest in an American club.

The controversy over the bid for the Mariners was one of a string of episodes in the last week that have emphasized what some say is growing American resentment of Japanese economic strength.

News reports have focused all week on American anger over a comment by a leader of the Japanese parliament that American workers are lazy and illiterate. There has also been considerable publicity over the rejection by Los Angeles of a previously awarded bid by subsidiary of the Sumitomo Corporation for construction of railway cars.

Japanese officials have been careful not to denounce the County of Los Angeles by name, but some warn that the cancellation of the Los Angeles contract could have damaging repercussions for the American drive to get construction contracts in Japan.

"This new Japan bashing is very unfortunate," said a senior economic policymaker, asking not to be identified. "Any backlash in Japan will make it more difficult to make progress in our own government procurement procedures."

He was referring to Japan-United States pacts in recent years permitting American construction companies to bid on dozens of projects, many of them airports and other projects put up by local authorities.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Masamichi Hanabusa, said that the latest efforts to block Japanese activity may be part of a wave of criticism or Japan bashing, but that this was a temporary phenomenon caused in part by the recession.

In defending the Nintendo baseball proposal, Yamauchi said the bid was in keeping with the community-minded spirit of the American subsidiary of the company, which has made considerable money in America.

"This is a kind of social service, not a business activity intended to make a profit," Yamauchi told The Yomiuri newspaper today. He said it was not his intention to change the name of the Mariners or to utilize the Mariners' name in the Nintendo business.

Echoing this view, Hanabusa of the Foreign Ministry said he could not understand why there would be a negative reaction to a possible Nintendo purchase, because it should be seen as part of Japanese efforts to support community activities.